Elia Kazan Quotes

(on James Dean) Dean`s body was very graphic; it was almost writhing in pain sometimes. He was very twisted, as if he were cringing all the time. Dean was a cripple anyway, inside -- he was not like (Marlon Brando). People compared them, but there was no similarity. He was a far, far sicker kid and Brando`s not sick, he`s just troubled.

(on Marlon Brando) To my way of thinking, his performance in On the Waterfront (1954) is the best male performance I`ve ever seen in my life.

(on Natalie Wood) The quality I remember about her was a kind of sweetness. When her persona fitted the role you couldn`t do better. She was it.

(on Marlon Brando) He was deeply rebellious against the bourgeois spirit, the over-ordering of life.

(on James Dean) He was sad and sulky. You kept expecting him to cry.

(on John Ford) Orson Welles was once asked which American directors most appealed to him. "The old masters," he replied. "By which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford." Well, I studied "Young Mr. Lincoln," for example. As I say, John Ford had a big influence on me.

(on Kirk Douglas) He fits into being an advertising man and a driving, ruthless person better than Brando could have. You would always suspect Brando. Kirk`s awfully bright. He`s as bright a person as I`ve met in the acting profession.

(on James Cagney) I learned something from Jimmy Cagney -- he taught me quite a lot about acting. Jimmy taught me some things about being honest and not overdoing it. He even affected my work with Brando a little bit. I mean, "Don`t show it, just do it."

(on Faye Dunaway) Faye carries a cloud of drama round with her. There is something in her at hazard.

Anybody who informs on other people is doing something disturbing and even disgusting.

I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.

The more ambivalent you are and the more uncertain you are, then you can get something that you cannot anticipate.

Stylized acting and direction is to realistic acting and direction as poetry is to prose.

You`ve got to keep fighting - you`ve got to risk your life every six months to stay alive.

The motion pictures I have made and the plays I have chosen to direct represent my convictions.

There is only one thing I respect in so-called Broadway actors... and that is their competitive sense.

Every fighter has one fight that makes or breaks him.

I was an outsider... but I was also sympathetic with people that were struggling to get up, because I struggled to get up.

I was taken in by what might be called the Hard Times version of the Communists` advertising or recruiting technique.

I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It`s a responsibility.

The first thing you should do with an actor is not sign a contract with him. Take him to dinner. And take him for a walk afterwards.

The physical life of the scene is determined by whether the set squeezes people together or whether the set has an escape place in it.

I was the hero of the young insurgent working class art movement.

You have no idea how fragile an actor`s self-worth is.

Miller didn`t write Death of a Salesman. He released it. It was there inside him, waiting to be turned loose. That`s the measure of its merit.

Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.

Every picture that is successful has one little miracle in it.

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don`t believe any more.

A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We`re desperate people.

When you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If you don`t know what he has, you don`t know what the hell is going on.

I owe Bankhead a gift; she made a director out of me.

I value peace when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.

Our relationship was cursed by the fact that we agreed on everything.

A good director`s not sure when he gets on the set what he`s going to do.

I wouldn`t go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It`s a nasty experience. You`re up there all by yourself. You`re so damn exposed.

I was not what you`d call a first-class actor, but I did all right.

I was both very successful and very left; the living demonstration of how you could be on the left and still be in the gossip columns and be envied for the money you made.

I spoke without fear of contradiction. I simply did not suffer self-doubt.

Very often the Group actor is a critic when he`s acting and an actor when he`s criticizing.

The world was like a huge red carpet out ahead of me to be walked on. And it stretched on and on, no end.

I knew the exuberance of playing before an admiring audience and hearing my secret voice.

I was the true future. I understood Communism better than they did.

The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don`t dare reveal.

I joined the Communist Party late in 1934. I got out a year and a half later.

I may be getting old, but not foolish.

I didn`t have that much confidence. Maybe it looks that way. I`m glad it does.

I`m going to make a film where not one word is really important. I`m going to make it all action.

You can`t just sit there and do the lines. You have to do something revealing or unusual.

The thing about Brando was that I`d make these directions, and he`d walk away. He`d heard enough... to get the machine going.

Hey, you must be doin` good, `cause I never hear from you.

I was always a self-conscious person.

The makers of entertainment must try, in our field, to be honest and grown-up.

I gave my life to the Group Theatre, because in it I`m building something for myself. What I build, I am.

I question the value of stars. I think they`re overrated. They get too much money, too much praise.

I said to Tennessee, this thing is becoming the Marlon Brando show.

I`m small, but I`m neither compliant nor agreeable.

I want to thank the Academy for its courage and generosity.

I would rather do what I did than crawl in front of a ritualistic Left and lie the way those other comrades did betray my own soul.

To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but is bitter and unforgettable.

I like directors who come on the set and create something that`s a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.

There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money, that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don`t feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

For years after I resigned, I was still faithful to their way of thinking. But not in the American Communists.

I was even superior to the Communists and when they didn`t go along with me, I quit them.

I`ve lost many of my best friends... I`m going to satisfy myself now, not the critics, not even my friends.

I don`t remember anything anybody said in any Jack Ford picture. Nothing happens except action.

I was very intense. I think it`s a privilege to be an actor.

What`s called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.

The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.

I used to spend most of my time straining to be a nice guy so people would like me.

The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep.

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

I was not a collective person or a bohemian; I was an elitist.

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?